What are you doing this weekend?

Thursday

Mike and I had plans to hang out Thursday night, and that we did. We went to Pancho Villa's that we had thought about the other day. We have a little bit of a hard time getting there. I knew the way, that wasn't the issue, but the street that it was on was located on both sides of the freeway, and so I didn't know exactly, but thought I did. We got it all solved. He told me what a bad navigator I was, but I used my phone to prove to him I knew what I was talking about. At the restaurant we order a bunch of appetizers- ceviche, avocado salad, y enchiladas. I make fun of Mike for his inability to pronounce words like aguacate, or avacado y even enchiladas. We watch the mariachis perform at the different tables and he is glad they don't come to serenade us. While there we talk for the greater part of 3 hours about teachers. He told me about the "Finding Superman" movie that he watched, we talked about teaching, bad teachers, good teachers, the teacher's union, Michelle Rhee, and we are on opposite sides of the spectrum on most things, but he understood my concerns, and he was glad that I am not going into teaching for the wrong reasons. He was impressed at my knowledge of some of the issues. Overall, while the conversation pissed me off and made me sad, it was nice that at the end we reached common ground and he knows I am in teaching for the right reasons. I still question daily why I am going into teaching. I would love to go into the business world, somewhere, something, where I can learn/use a new set of skills.

Mike asked me what I had planned for this weekend again. He actually texted me Tuesday night when I was in class asking if I had class next week and whether I had a break. He wanted to do a roadtrip or take me along on his business trip this weekend. He has to go up to San Jose today, Sunday, and wanted to go up there Sunday-Tuesday with me. I wish I had a week off. I'm mad that I don't. Damn new school schedule with back to back classes and no break. Damn Monday night classes.

We go back to his house and watch American Idol and a couple talk shows on his Tivo. While we were sitting on our respective couches I got a text from Linda about 11:30 telling me that she got a text from a teacher that wanted my sub number so she could request me since her mom was rushed to the hospital. I texted Linda and then called into the system to get the job. Mike and I watched TV until midnight and I told him that I could either take off, otherwise he might hate me for having to wake up at 6:45 to get to work on time. He said it wasn't a problem. I said that as long as he wouldn't hate me I'd stay the night. He said he had to get up at 7. We go into his room and watch "The Nanny," or something like that on TV until we fell asleep. I didn't sleep well that night.

Friday

We woke up at 6:45 to my alarm. My alarm sound was the ringtone on his iPhone, which was funny. I throw on clothes and head out of the house about 6:51. I stop at Jack in the Box on the way to work. I made excellent time. It only took me 20 minutes to go 21 miles. I made better time than I usually do on my way to work.

I have a great day at work and the classes are good.

Mike texts me about 3:30 as I am at the post office getting the mail asking if I'm coming around that night. I told him I would. I go home, shower, change clothes, and set up Netflix for my parents on the Apple TV. I drive to his house and get there about 5:30. Mike is on the computer looking for memory for his computer. Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples have poor memory search sites, so he tries Fry's. Fry's has it. He asks if I know how to get to Fry's, and whether City of Industry is closer than Anaheim. I said it may be, at least with traffic on a Friday night, City of Industry would be better because of the number of freeways we have that we could take home. We drive over to Industry and make fun of the name of the city. We talk about all sorts of things in the car like work, school, and my sister. He thinks I'm too hard on my sister. We also talk about the new Southwest Rapid Rewards program, which I don't like. He likes it because he is a last minute traveler who always books in the business class, so for him he will earn tons of rewards. For me, based on the new program it will mean that I have to use my Southwest Credit Card in most places like when I dine out to earn a trip a year to a destination I want to go. Prior I had no problem accumulating flights.

We go into Fry's and get the memory, then walk around, and in line search for a restaurant. He stumbles upon an expensive French restaurant in Whittier that he thinks we should try. We struggle with the poor reception on our phone to get directions to the restaurant. We wonder how standing next to each other he tends to have better reception than me. We enjoy Whittier. It had some really nice houses and trees, and an old charm to it. We have a hard time finding the restaurant in their little downtown area, so drive around a couple times.



We go to a French Cafe that he gets reservations on Open Table for. It was cool to go to the table and see the reserved placard on it. We debate over appetizers or meals. We are a little bothered that the price range opentable said was not true. Entrees were $20+ a piece. He chooses a shallot thing and I choose the pork chop with apricot sauce. The apricot sauce was not my favorite because I don't like sweet on my meat. Sorry. He keeps encouraging me to gnaw on the bone and get all the meat off of it. I tell him that my dogs are for that. We do dessert too, which is the best part of the meal. I get the apple tart, which we have to wait 15 minutes extra for. The coffee he orders with dessert is cold and he isn't happy since he doesn't do cold coffee. I don't recall what the conversation was about in the restaurant, but I do remember a little about the eccentric people we saw, how Whittier is definitely a place we should return to, the things we could have done in San Jose, and his interesting coworkers. We talk about how much Mike makes in a year. He gets excellent money for what he does and how money is never an issue for him. It makes me kind of sad it'll take me 2 years or so of work to make what he does in a year when I start out in my career.

We drive back to his place and are surprised how his navigation system routes us. It routes us around a few accidents on the 10 and 210. We hit some heavy fog on the 15 going back to his house.

I fall asleep while he puts "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" on Netflix. I am asleep within probably the first 20 minutes. It is midnight. I wake up in the last 10 minutes of the show and joke that I think I got the show after I heard the line about how she was afraid she couldn't get pregnant and I hear about how I did not miss anything.

We make our way into bed about 12:40 and go to bed.

Saturday

Mike and I play around- we cuddle and he sucks me off. We get up, shower, and then he tells me he needs to get his rental car. We are amazed how hail is coming down in buckets outside. It is absolutely pouring. No snow like the weathercasters predicted. We go to the airport for the car and he says we will spend the day out somewhere. I suggest LA. I drive him to the airport and we leave my car at the mall. We cruise to LA in his rented Ford Taurus, which for being such an expensive car is lacking in some features and has an uncomfortable center console that really makes the car feel confined, and we hypothesized for anyone who was heavyset that it would be an issue. He didn't look bad in the Taurus let me say... lol. We go to Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

We walk around Olvera Street and he deems he needs a margarita. I tell him 2 of the ok restaurants, but both of those don't serve alcohol and don't have outdoor seating. We settle on the expensive one, La Golondrina. The margaritas were good, but $12. The meal was about $80 for the 2 of us, so we deem it a tourist trap. I joke how we should have gone over to East LA to El Tepeyac or something just down the street where we could get cheap and authentic food. He gets the enchiladas de mariscos, pero he couldn't pronounce mariscos. Boo. We share ceviche and I get the enchilada plate. I tell him about the history of Olvera Street. As I'm doing that he stops me and tells me I have one thing that really bugs him. I say the same thing over and over in conversation and probably don't realize it. He asked me if I knew what it was. I told him no. He said I always say, "AND EVERYTHING." I chuckled. I never would have guessed that. I don't recall, but he said I insert that into conversation when it isn't necessary. I told him I didn't think so. He told me to listen and I told him I know I'll start picking up on it because he pointed it out. He told me his phrase is during trainings where he says "best practice says," and I made fun of him for sounding like a training manual, and how he probably doesn't have any fact behind the best practice. He said he has a coworker who says "like" constantly. He told me his friend Candy always was written up in her reviews for always saying, "so basically." I told him at work the kids would probably say the thing I say over and over is "you think?" We ate and decided to split the bill, then walk around Olvera, and I almost said "and everything" again in conversation but I say something just slightly different. He starts laughing and I hit him a few times playfully. He decides he doesn't want to venture over to Chinatown since it is too authentic for him, so we head out.

He has me google a few places to possibly visit, and he looks up places. He looks up cafes and I look up the train museum from "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS. We drive over through the Fairfax District, WEHO, and Beverly Hills to some cafe just off of Rodeo DRive that he saw on the show. He was surprised it wasn't busy. We drive down Wilshire and there is a protest for Libya in front of the LA County Cemetery that is really holding up traffic- it takes us 30 minutes or so to go down Wilshire. We go into Brentwood for Pinkberry. We head to the train museum, which is somewhere near Griffith Park. We get to it and discover it closed at 5. It was 5:15. We decide to go to the Griffith Observatory since we both had never been. We drive up and admire the views. We talk about things we had seen at the Greek Theater. Then we see how crowded it is, but also because it was raining and it would be hard to see the clouds it was definitely a weekday thing. We decide to head back to get my car and he is tickling me a good part of the time. We are listening to 971 AMP Radio as we drive. He drops me off to the mall to get my car and we agree to meet back at his house.

Back at his house we watch "Old Christine" and he packs. I start to watch "Bi the Way," while he packs, but realize it is kind of blah. It doesn't give much fact about bisexualism, which is what I was hoping for. I turn it off when he is done and then we watch "Old Christine." He microwaves some fries and we snack on those with barbecue sauce and ketchup.

About 10:30 we head to bed because he has to get up early.

Sunday

We woke up at 6:30 and make out. He gets up and says that he wants a later flight because 6:30 is too early. All the later flights were booked, so he gets up and showers. I shower after him. He finishes his packing and then we head outside. It is 30 out. There is ice on his rental and ice on my windshield- thankfully not a thick layer that I just run the windshield wipers and spray the windshield wiper fluid to clear it. It is 30 out. My car said icy all the way home.

I got home about 8:10 and stopped at McDonalds for breakfast for the family to let them know I still care about them since it had been so long since we'd seen each other... lol.